Royal Vopak Announces Recommended Offer to Purchase Ellis & Everard
Royal Vopak announced this morning that it has launched a recommended cash offer to purchase all of the issued and to be issued ordinary shares of Ellis & Everard. Our offer, which values the current issued ordinary share capital of Ellis & Everard at approximately GBP 310 million (USD 443 million) is being unanimously supported by the Ellis & Everard Board of Directors.
Unless Vopak otherwise determines, the offer is not being made, directly or indirectly, in or into the US or Canada.
A combined Royal Vopak and Ellis & Everard creates one of the world’s leading chemical distribution companies and further solidifies Vopak’s market leading position in the United States.
Royal Vopak reported sales in 1999 from worldwide chemical distribution activities of EUR 2.8 billion. Ellis & Everard’s sales for the comparable period were USD 1.3 billion, 60% of which occurred in the United States, 23% in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the balance elsewhere in Europe. On a pro-forma, combined basis for fiscal year 1999, Vopak and Ellis & Everard’s US business would have represented chemical distribution sales in North America of USD 2.7 billion. Vopak Distribution Europe, combined with Ellis & Everard’s UK and European sales, on a pro-forma basis for 1999, would have resulted in sales of EUR 1.4 billion.
Ellis & Everard creates significant synergies for Vopak operations. Ellis & Everard is one of the leading chemical distributors in the UK and Ireland and brings its strong commodity portfolio to our existing specialties business. In North America, Ellis & Everard creates an important critical mass for our existing business. Furthermore, Ellis & Everard provides a launching pad in the US and in Europe for entering the polymers market, a business segment in which we have long had an interest to participate.
In addition to its strong market position in the UK, Ellis & Everard operates in the Benelux countries and in Scandinavia. Its European business units include: Distrupol, Goorden, Kent Foods and G. Fiske & Co. The Ellis & Everard Group in the US includes: American Industrial Chemicals Corporation, Apperson Chemicals Inc, Chemply, Kramer Chemicals, Manley-Regan, Mid-State, George Mann & Co, HVC, Ind Chem, Mozel, Performance Polymers, Pioneer Chemicals, Prillaman Chemical Corporation and The Truesdale Company.
This acquisition is an important step in accomplishing Royal Vopak’s overall corporate strategy for chemical distribution. As announced last year to investors and the financial community, our goal is to double sales in chemical distribution, through organic growth and acquisition, within three to five years. By acquiring Ellis & Everard, we will have taken an important step in accomplishing this objective. The opportunity lies not just in the additional sales and profit that we envisage that Ellis & Everard will bring; but through the opportunity for synergies and the new possibilities for organic growth that we believe will be greater together than either company could hope to achieve independently.
Once we have acquired all of the outstanding shares of Ellis & Everard and the merger is complete, we will be working collaboratively with the management of Ellis & Everard to accomplish an effective integration of the two organizations. Our guiding principle in all cases will be to select the “best person for the job”. We also will be able to share, at that time, substantially more detail about our plans, policies and processes for making a smooth transition.
“The directors of Vopak Distribution Holdings UK, the members of the Executive Board of Vopak and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Vopak accept responsibility for the information contained in this announcement. To the best of their knowledge and belief (having taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case), the information contained in this announcement is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything
